


goodbye, young rudy

by creveli



Category: Red Dead Redemption
Genre: Blood and Injury, Established Relationship, M/M, hosea gets beaten up, hosea kinda freaks out, odriscoll boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 21:13:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17475080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creveli/pseuds/creveli
Summary: There was nothing but a ringing in his ear. That, and the muffled sounds of shuffling and voices. Dutch had put up quite a fight, but not a good enough one to be walking away safe and sound. Right now, he was collapsed in a barren road in Saint Denis, blood trickling from his head after being knocked in the head with a baseball bat by one of his attackers.Attackers. He had been robbed. Hosea was with him.Oh, shit.Hosea.





	goodbye, young rudy

There was nothing but a ringing in his ear. That, and the muffled sounds of shuffling and voices. Dutch had put up quite a fight, but not a good enough one to be walking away safe and sound. Right now, he was collapsed in a barren road in Saint Denis, blood trickling from his head after being knocked in the head with a baseball bat by one of his attackers.

Attackers. He had been robbed. Hosea was with him.

Oh, shit.

Hosea.

\-----

Dutch opened his eyes in a flash, fear pulsating throughout him until it consumed him entirely. It was all coming back at once. He and Hosea had gone to a moving picture show at Hosea’s insistence. He had always wanted to see one since their creation, the idea of a moving photo fascinating him. So, when they saw that one was showing, of course Hosea wanted to see it. And of course Dutch said yes.

When they left, though, it was late. The streets were empty aside from an occasional drunk straggler or rebellious teenagers picking fights with one another. Hand in hand, the two figured they would make it out safe, especially with their guns tucked away in their pockets.

That was not the case. They were quickly ambushed by O'Driscolls, Dutch mainly using punches and his knives to fight them off. If he used a gun, the entire fucking town would be alerted.

He managed to kill one and knock out another who tried to choke him, leaving him on his knees wheezing like a deflated balloon. Despite this, Dutch looked up at Hosea with a cheesy grin, making the older man chuckle. He loved him so much. So, so much.

Then, the crack of a baseball bat connecting with Dutch’s head brought Hosea out of his staring. He shrieked his lovers name and readied his gun to shoot him, not caring if someone heard, but he was tackled moments later by another, his gun flying out of hand.

“I’m gonna make ya wish you was dead, old man!”

———–

Dutch watched in horror as Hosea was pinned down and attacked, the attacker punching him over and over, each wet crack making Dutch more and more terrified.

Terrified. Dutch realized its been a long time since he was truly afraid

He wished he could run over and tear the fucker apart, but the baseball wielding attacker had pinned his arms behind his back as tight as possible. Dutch had never felt so useless as he watched the man he loved be beaten to a pulp. They would never kill Dutch: Colm wanted him alive. But Hosea? They couldn’t care any less.

It made Dutch want to scream until his lungs gave out.

——–

Hosea had no time to think. The O’Driscoll boy on top of him was connecting his knuckles with Hosea’s face over and over, blood splattered on his knuckles like paint. The older man was using all his strength to try and push the boy off of him, but each attempt proved fruitless. The O’Driscoll was faster, more quick on his feet. Each time Hosea tried to grab his arm or head, the boy pulled his arm away and punched him, harder than the last.

“A’ight, that’s enough, Rudy. Get it over with,” called the man pinning down Dutch. He was now busying himself with hog tying Dutch, who was practically paralyzed watching Hosea being beaten.

Rudy let out a sigh, reaching into his pocket, revealing a knife. “Fine, fine.. I guess it’s gettin’ kinda borin’, beating up an old sack o’ shit.” 

Hosea’s eyes widened as Rudy lifted the knife above his head, readying the killing blow. Hosea began to search around him, hoping to find anything to save him in this situation, sweat and blood beading down his head like a broken watermelon. It was as if time slowed in this moment, adrenaline becoming his new life line. He almost cried out in relief when he noticed his gun in arms reach.

Glancing frantically back and forth at his attacker, Hosea’s hand quickly flew to his wrist just as he swung down to kill him, the knife only inches from his face. Rudy grunted, pushing as hard as he could, not noticing Hosea’s free hand reaching to his side, wrangling the gun in his dampened hand.

He let out a scream and in one quick motion, brought the gun to the boys temple and fired instantly. The boy collapsed with his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide in sudden shock. He was gone.

The other attacker, brought out of his focus into keeping Dutch in place, jerked his head up, shocked to see his younger friend dead.

“HEY! What the fu-?!”

Hosea, without hesitation, aimed the gun at his head and fired, feeling a bit of disgusting satisfaction watching him crumble to the ground dead. 

Hosea stood there, dazed for a few seconds, not quite registering what he just did. He still had the gun gripped in his hand and he was breathing heavily, the barrel still pointed at where the man was standing. 

He killed two people. Hosea hadn’t done that in a long, long time, as he opted for non violent ways of handling others. He usually just knocked them out and only killed if necessary. It was necessary now, of course, but it still rattled his bones and added tallies to his sins.

“Hosea?”

It didn’t help that Rudy, his attacker, was young. Hosea noticed. He had to be at least 19 or 20, the same age as Lenny. Maybe their stories were similar: a traumatic event caused them to do something violent, and they were taken in by people who promised them great things. It hurt his old soul how cruel things could be, especially right now.

“Hosea! Are you ok?!”

Snapping out of his deep thoughts, he suddenly remembered his boyfriend was bleeding and hogtied, probably annoyed that he hasn’t been untied. If they just kept standing there, the law would get them any second.

Running over to him, Hosea crumbled next to him and grabbed Dutch’s knife, quickly cutting him out of his binds. 

“I should be asking you this, van der Linde. What the hell were you thinkin, tryin’ to fight off those thieves with your bare hands–”

He was interrupted when Dutch threw his arms around him tightly, letting out shaky breaths that he didn’t realize he was holding. Watching Hosea be pummeled alive was a sight he never wanted to see. The thought of it made a few tears drift from his eyes that he didn’t want to let go, and he squeezed the older man tighter.

Hosea blinked, a bit startled by the sudden compassion, but he sighed and rested his face into his shoulder. He was exhausted and his face looked like one of Pearson’s meals. 

“I’m ok, Dutch. No need to worry about an old man like me,” he said gently, rubbing his back reassuringly. “It’s like you and Arthur say: I’m gonna outlive death, prob’ly.” 

Dutch let out a watery chuckle, edging away to wipe his tears. “I know, I know… Just.. Watchin’ that damn kid hurt you, it’s a sight I couldn’t bare witness to.” 

Hosea could tell he was being genuine. Dutch’s eyes were focused on the ground, not wanting to look at Hosea’s bruised and battered face like it was an obscene sight. It hurt the older man, just a little, but he understood.

Hosea raised a hand and cupped Dutch’s cheek, wiping his tears. Dutch reached up and held his hand, rubbing his thumb over the small scrapes on his hand. He closed his eyes, focusing on Hosea’s touch, focusing on the fact that he was here. He was here and he wasn’t gonna go anywhere.

“I think I heard it this way! C’mon!”

The two were alerted by the shouts of law men. They must have heard the gunshots and were searching for the sight of the commotion. Hosea and Dutch quickly stood up, grabbed a hold of each others hands, and fled the city into the night, leaving behind the corpse of Rudy Wilhelm and all he stood for.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you all enjoyed! i might add another chapter to this owo 
> 
> tumblr: thatprettycowboy


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